FILE – MAY 28, 2014: It was reported that Apple Inc. will buy headphone-maker Beats Electronics for approximately $3 billion May 28, 2014. NEW YORK, NY – MAY 09: Beats headphones are sold in an Apple store on May 9, 2014 in New York City. Apple is rumored to be consideringing buying the headphone company for $3.2 billion.

SAN FRANCISCO — Apple has agreed to buy Beats Electronics for $3 billion, its biggest acquisition, nabbing a popular line of headphones and a nascent subscription music-streaming service as the iPhone maker seeks to rev up growth.

Beats co-founders Dr. Dre and music-industry executive Jimmy Iovine will join Apple, according to a statement from the companies Wednesday. The purchase price is $2.6 billion, with another $400 million that will vest over time.

While Apple’s iTunes remains the world’s largest seller of music, it offers only downloads of single tracks and albums. Music-streaming services — where a customer pays for access to the songs instead of owning them in a digital library — have gained in popularity, especially among younger listeners, said Mike McGuire, an analyst at Gartner Inc. Yet the services aren’t lucrative, he said.

“They haven’t moved to a subscription model, and there is a lot of good reason they didn’t,” McGuire said. “The big one is there isn’t a lot of money to be made.”

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